​Mary Anne Sedney, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies

Research and Teaching Interests

I am a clinical psychologist by training and a feminist psychologist by inclination. Throughout my career, much of my work has focused on the lives and experiences of women. This emphasis on women has sensitized me to some of the limitations as well as the strengths of psychological approaches to understanding people. It has also made me aware of how very much social context shapes our experience, understanding, and development.

I enjoy teaching Psychology of Women, Psychology Internship, Abnormal Behavior, Personality, Behavior Disorders of Children, Psychology in Human Services, and Introduction to Psychology within the Psychology Department. In the Women's Studies Program, I teach Introduction to Women's Studies and Representations of Motherhood as the Capstone in Women's Studies.

Since graduate school, I have been interested in how people cope with stressful life events. These interests have taken me into studies of psychological androgyny, middle-aged women, and, most recently, bereaved children and families. In particular, I focus on what I call "grief narratives" in children's popular films. While many people have expressed concern about the numbers of deaths children witness in movies and on television, I am interested particularly in the ways in which the grief process in children is portrayed in these media. It is my belief that these portrayals of grief are important sources of information for children about what grief is, how long it lasts, and how it is expressed.

Sedney, M. A., & Brooks, B. (1984). Factors associated with a history of childhood sexual experience in a non-clinical female population. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 23, 215-218.